1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image data processing device and, more particularly, to an image data processing device that reduces the amount of intermediate data used for generating print data from page description language data.
2. Description of Related Art
It is known in the art to perform processing to generate intermediate data (interim coding) and to store, in memory, the intermediate data during the expansion into print data (bitmap data) from page description language (PDL) data that has been received from a device such as a personal computer (PC).
During this process, it is highly likely that the memory will become full, particularly if there is a large amount of intermediate data. For that reason, techniques are known in the art for reducing an amount of the intermediate data, as disclosed in Japanese patent-application publication (kokai) No. 2001-270164.